OTTAWA – Conservative MP Tony Clement took to social media this week to air his grievances with the CBC over the broadcaster’s unscrupulous interview tactic of expecting clear answers to simple questions.
The Official Opposition Critic for Public Safety said he appeared in good faith on CBC Montreal’s ‘Daybreak’ to complain about the RCMP’s handling of refugees seeking asylum from the US, when host Mike Finnerty was ambushed him with biased, ‘gotcha’ questions like, “So what should [the RCMP] do?”
“Can you believe it?” Clement scoffed. “A journalist asking me how I’d approach a matter of public safety simply because I went on his show in my official capacity and Public Safety Critic to complain about the current approach. Naturally, my only defense was to hang up and run away.”
Clement added that the public broadcaster’s insistence on holding public officials accountable to the very people who elected them is the most glaring example of why the CBC must be defunded.
“The last thing people want to waste their money on,” he explained, “is the freedom and empowerment offered to them by an independent press.”
